Changes
by MarcusTheBloody
Summary: This story takes place about a year from NFA. It is what I see as the next step...plus it is an excuse to bring everyone back. Please read and review...and I will gladly return the favor.
1. Chapter 1

"Quiet night." Dawn said, pulling her coat tighter around her slim frame.

"You would rather we ran into trouble?" Conner responded with a mock punch to his girlfriend's shoulder.

Turning, she punched him back, but with a smile as bright as the sun on her face, "Hit me again and there will be trouble."

"Easy you two." Spike said from behind them, "I like it as rough as the next guy, but save it for the baddies."

Without so much as a glance back at the vampire, the two continued on their merry way.

Spike knew he should be paying attention to what could be lurking in the shadows, but he found himself compelled to watch the couple in front of him. He loved Dawn with all his being and had cared for her, uncharacteristically for a vampire, well before he had went and got himself a soul. As for Connor, he didn't feel the same as he did about Dawn, but he did care for the boy. Besides, he owed him a debt for pulling his fat out of the fire in L.A.

Yet, they also represented something else that ground Spike's teeth; his importance.

More had changed in the last two years of Spike's undead existence than they had in the last two hundred. First there had been his time in Sunnydale with the Slayer. She had turned his head to stone and his insides to mush in his time there, which lead him back to his soul and eventually into the Hellmouth to play Roman candle.

Then there had been his time in Los Angeles. It had started well, with him being able to be a thorn in Angel's side, but it had not ended well between Fred's death and their tumble with the Black Thorn.

Six month ago, there had been the Queen.

Now, there was Cleveland.

Another Hellmouth; another world to save. Same old, same old; yet everything else was different.

First and foremost of on his list of things different was him. Something had happened to him in L.A., though he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He had given as well as he had took, which was a lot, and at the end of the tussle, when Connor had saved him from the dust pile, he hadn't healed right.

To look at him, he was his usual handsome self, but physically he was weaker and slower than he was before and there was no explanation for it.

For the first time in his life, Spike was out patrolling with others not as the "Big Bad", but as the one with "experience." Connor was the muscle, while Dawnie add the magical mojo.

Of course, he wasn't the only one who had changed, but he was the one he was worried about.

Dawn with the magic. Gunn with the light show. Angel and Willow…

Spike suddenly realized that the two in front of him had stopped.

He was about to ask what was wrong when he caught a familiar scent that was coupled with a dark feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.

Vampires.

In front of them was an old metal building that had, by the looks of things, been a mechanic's garage. There were two windows in the front, but they were blacked out with paint, which left them no easy way to see what was going on inside the building.

"You two stay here." Spike said, as he headed around the back of the building. He might not be able as strong as he once was, but he could still skulk with the best of them.

After making a complete circuit of the building, Spike returned to his companions.

"One way in. One way out." Spike said, pointing to the metal door before them.

Connor nodded, "Dawn, can you tell us how many are in there?"

Still huddled in her coat, she nodded. Closing her eyes, she stood completely still. For several seconds, her face was expressionless, until she flinched and scrunched up her lips and nose.

Opening her eyes, she shook herself out of her coat and became very serious, "Seven vamps and three humans."

She paused for a moment before adding. "It's not pretty in there."

Both Spike and Connor nodded.

Spike walked to the door and tried it. Incredibly it opened.

Just before they stepped through, Dawn stopped them. She placed each of her hands on each of her companion's chests. Spike didn't feel anything at first, but when she pulled her hands away, he felt a slight warmth spread through his body.

Dawn smiled, "Just a little insurance"

Spike didn't ask what she had meant; he trusted her.

The three of them quietly slipped into the building and took in what lie before them. On the far end of the room, six vampires huddled around three human bodies that were lying on a large wooden table like a giant blood buffet. All of them, including the vampires, were naked.

Spike had no illusions as to what was happening. A blood orgy. Back in the old days, he had been involved in more than his number of them, along with Angulus, Darla, and Dru. The vampires would rape their victims before feeding. The sexual energy in both the vampires and their prey would heighten the feast.

It was an old ritual and not something Spike had seen done in over a hundred years; which meant that they were dealing with old vampires…

He was about to mention that fact to Dawn and Connor, when Connor asked, "I thought you said there was seve…"

Connor didn't get to finish as a vampire dropped from above them and grabbed Spike. Spike growled as he grappled with it. "Yeah, you better worry about me first."

He was going to say something else, but the vampire's fist split his lip.

From the moment that the vampire dropped, Connor and Dawn rolled into action. They knew that Spike could take care of himself, so they concerned themselves with vampires that were in front of them. In the few seconds that it took the feeding demons to look up to see what the commotion was, Connor was already on them.

Popping the foot long blade that was lodged in the mailed gauntlet he wore on his left hand, he slashed the throat of the first vamp he passed and continued towards the next one. That one looked up just in time to catch the wooden stake that Connor wielded in his right hand directly in the chest. As it dusted, Connor turned and dusted the first vampire, who was vainly trying to hold his ruined throat together.

As he turned to face the next one, it exploded in a gout of flame and fell to the floor as the fire quickly consumed it. Another ball of fire came from where Dawn stood to his side, forcing the last three vampires to scatter, two rolling towards Connor, which he quickly took advantage of.

In less than thirty seconds, they had dispatched the remaining three vampires and were checking on their victims.

"Are any of them still alive?" Dawn asked pensively.

Connor checked the pulse of the first two and shook his head, "No, they have been dead for some time."

Moving to the last one, a young girl about their age, Connor was surprised to find a pulse, albeit a thready one.

"She's alive." Connor exclaimed excitedly.

Connor looked her over; she was in bad shape. "Can you do anything for her?" Connor asked as he turned to Dawn.

Taking the girl's head in both hands, Dawn closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she spoke. "There wasn't much I could do, but I think I was able to heal her enough till we can get her some help."

"Not sure she'll thank us though…" Connor whispered.

Dawn nodded and then reached into pocket and pulled out a cellphone. They had set the phone up on a relay so it would be untraceable, It wouldn't do them any good if the authorities were bothering them. The police were as jaded to paranormal activity in Cleveland as they had been back in Sunnydale and L.A., but much of what they did left them in a gray area that they would rather not have to explain to them.

"You call for help, while I take care of the other two." Connor said, a resigned tone in his voice.

Dawn nodded and turned her back to the table. Although she knew Connor had to make sure the two dead humans didn't come back to life as vampires, but that didn't mean she wanted to watch. They were entering another one of those "gray" areas.

Back from near the entrance, Dawn caught the sound of Spike swearing. A moment later, he staggered out from behind a stack of barrels.

"Who's next!" He shouted unconvincingly, though he was in the midst of his normal swagger.

Spike looked at Dawn, who was now speaking to the 911 dispatcher, then to Connor who had taken the first head off and was working on the second, and swore.


	2. Chapter 2

OOC – Just so there is no confusing, I haven't read the Queen of the Slayers book yet, so I took the title and put it into the mythos as I saw fit. The truth be told…I wanted Faith and Buffy to be the only Slayers…as far as I'm concerned, more is not better. I mucked with Dawn and Willow also, with more mucking to come with Gunn and Spike. Anyhow, thanks for the comments…keep them coming. This was not exactly my best writing, but it was the best I could do while writing between hands of internet poker. This is my way of getting paid while I write…it's not like anyone is ever going to pay me for _what _I write.

Anyhow, back to the story:

Turning over to face the small clock on his nightstand, Angel checked the time.

For what had seemed an eternity, proved to be only seven minutes later than when he had last checked.

_Where are they?_ He thought, _Shouldn't they be back by now?_

Angel flipped back the covers and got out of bed. Grabbing a pair of red flannel pajama bottoms, he headed out the door of his bedroom and into the long hallway that led to the center commons of Vanguard.

The hallway was dark, though small panel lights blinked on as Angel walked further down the hall and then faded as he passed, leaving him blanketed in light as he continued. Vanguard, which they had moved into just over a month earlier, was a sprawling estate that was a mix of new world technology and old world magic, blended to provide them not only a secure base of operations, but a home as well.

Vanguard, which taken literally meant "a forward guard" now served as home for the remnant of Angel's crew from Los Angeles and Buffy's entourage from Italy, plus a few others who had found their way into their lives over the last six months. Here they did their best to handle what the Hellmouth spit out at them; which of late was a lot.

As if the fallout of what had happened with the Black Thorn and the eruption of the Hellmouth in Sunnydale hadn't been enough, they had just come up with another life altering battle with a woman who called herself the "Queen of the Slayers."

When Willow had focused her magic through the Scythe and allowed all the "potential" Slayer's to gain the full power that only Buffy and Faith had formerly held, so that they could do battle with the First in the Hellmouth, she had also set a power struggle in place.

The Queen, a woman named Annoula, learned that by killing other Slayers, she could draw a fraction of their power into herself; so she set out on a calculated killing spree, which finally found it's way to Buffy in Italy. Unable to defeat Buffy and Faith, Annoula stole the Scythe and tried to find a way to draw all the existing Slayer essence back into it and then transfer it back to herself, thus saving her the trouble to tracking down the remaining Slayers and killing them.

Hot on her trail, Buffy, along with help from Angel's group, found Annoula and managed to retake the Scythe. It was then that Buffy decided to try to reverse what Willow had done, protecting the other Slayers from being hunted down and stopping Annoula in the process. Willow was successful in the spell casting, but there was a price; she lost a great deal of her power. Also, in the process of recovering the Scythe, Willow was bitten by a werewolf that Annoula had sent to hunt them. Willow found that the little magical power she had left allowed her to overcome the monthly were-transformations and that she could also transform at will, though while in that form, she had no magical prowess whatsoever.

In the end, it was as if the power transference hadn't happened, which left only Buffy and Faith with the abilities of the Slayer.

Though he was happy that the threat of the Queen was gone, Angel had to admit that having a backup contingent of Slayer would help them immensely.

_Where was Connor?_

Angel thought that now he better understood what he had put his father through when he was Connor's age. Where Connor was now out facing literal demons, Angel, when he was still Liam, was out facing the demons that his father feared – drunkenness, slothfulness, and lust. The only difference between the two was that the demons Connor faced could physically, while Angel's father feared the destruction of his respectible family name.

_What a bastard_. Angel thought. Angel forced the hateful thoughts that he held for his father back down, deep inside himself.

I won't ever do that to Connor. No matter what happens, I will let him know I am proud of him.

The sound of voices caught Angel's attention_. Connor?_

Picking up his pace, Angel came to a sitting room in the main building that was central to Vanguard. He didn't find Connor, but he did find three adult men who were screaming at the top of their lungs as they played they played the old standup arcade game Gauntlet Legends.

The first was the former Watcher, Andrew and next to him was Xander Harris. Both were in charge of Vanguard's defenses, Andrew handling the magical while Xander covered the hardware.

The final man was an old acquaintance from L.A. named David Nabbitt. David, much like Xander and Andrew, seemed to a young boy trapped in a man's body, yet unlike Xander and Andrew, who were lucky to have five dollars in their wallets, David was rich; a billion dollars rich and it was David who had financed the building of Vanguard.

It was also David who noticed Angel first.

"Ah…um… we didn't wake you up did we Angel?" David stammered.

Xander and Andrew stopped and turned towards the vampire for a moment before returning to their game.

"Don't stop now David the Valkyrie, we only have two more levels to go." Andrew said, referring to the character than David had been playing.

"Shut up and get the chest Andrew! And if there are any healing potions in there make sure you share…" Xander was saying when Angel tuned him out.

"Have you heard from Connor?" Angel asked David.

The computer mogul just shrugged his shoulders, "Umm…no."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a palm-sized pad, which he tapped with his finger.

"They haven't checked back in…"He said, sliding his finger over the surface the display. "And they signed out just after 7:00 p.m, which means they should have been back, or at least called us…an hour ago."

David must have realized Angel was worried because he quickly added, "But they said that they were going to patrol from Long Street to the downtown. That could take awhile, even if they didn't find anything. I'm sure they're fine."

_Dammit Connor, where are you? _


End file.
